This invention relates to a connector which contains various circuit elements and is used for the connection of wires or for other purposes.
Various electric equipments such as motors for an air-conditioner, wipers, power windows, etc., are mounted on an automobile serving as a mobile body. A wire harness is installed on the automobile so as to supply electric power and control signals to the electric equipments. The wire harness includes a plurality of wires, and connectors each receiving metal terminals connected to end portions of the wires. The wire is a so-called sheathed wire including an electrically-conductive core wire (conductor) and an insulative sheath covering the core wire.
As a connector of the above-mentioned wire harness, an electronic part-containing connector (see, for example, Patent Literature 1) containing a circuit element, etc., has been used for connecting an electronic equipment (such as an actuator) to a control unit (such as a computer) by a data communication network. The electronic part-containing connector of this kind has a lead frame (having the circuit element, etc., mounted thereon) contained in its housing.
Electric power for driving its circuit element is supplied to the electronic part-containing connector disclosed in the above Patent Literature 1. Therefore, in order that electric power can be positively supplied to the electronic part-containing connector of the above Patent Literature 1 with a simple construction, this connector is mounted on longitudinally-central portions of wires, and are connected to the wires in such a manner that the wires are led out from widthwise-opposite ends of the connector. A plurality of such electronic part-containing connectors are mounted on the wires, and are spaced from one each other in the longitudinal direction of the wires. These connectors are fitted respectively to various electronic equipments, and connect these electronic equipments to the network.                [Patent Literature 1] JP-A-2003-134720        
The electronic part-containing connectors shown in the above Patent Literature 1 are mounted on the central portions of the wires in spaced relation to each other, and therefore when the connectors are assembled into a wire harness, these connectors appear as if they were mounted on a main wire portion of the wire harness.
On the other hand, an ordinary connector not provided with the above circuit element is mounted on end portions of the wires since it does not need to be supplied with electric power. Therefore, an ordinary wire harness formed by such connectors not provided with any circuit element appears as if the connectors were mounted on end portions of branch wires of the wire harness.
Therefore, it is difficult to combine the wire harness including the electronic part-containing connectors (shown in the above Patent Literature 1) with the wire harness including the ordinary connectors not containing any circuit element and to handle these combined wire harnesses as one wire harness when mounting these combined wire harnesses on an automobile or the like. Therefore, it is desired that the wire harness including the electronic part-containing connectors (shown in the above Patent Literature 1) can also be handled in a similar manner to the wire harness including the above ordinary connectors.